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Lake County needs a champion in Sacramento, someone who will be a relevant voice for our unique and urgent problems.
In the Fourth State Assembly District race Cecilia Aguiar-Curry stands out as the candidate who can best represent Lake County.
There’s something compelling about someone who works as hard as Cecilia has. From laboring in the fields as a child, to running a farm and small business, to city hall – where she served as planning commissioner and council member – to her current position as mayor, Cecilia stands out as a hard worker who governs for results. Her track record is the proof.
From my first encounter with Cecelia at a Northshore meet and greet I was struck with her no-nonsense approach to problem solving and her track record of results.
What Cecelia has done for the Winters community is notable, including bringing in a multimillion dollar training facility and jobs, senior housing, computers to the classroom, high speed Internet to rural areas and more.
She was also instrumental in persuading the nation's president to make a historic designation important to our region and was featured for her role at the dedication of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
This close to the June 7 primary election, there’s little time to investigate the backgrounds of the three candidates running for the State Assembly.
One quick way is to reference editorials. I found two. One, written by the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee (www.sacbee.com , 4/24/16), refers to Cecilia as being well grounded in the district with a track record of no-drama consensus.
This editorial also states that the winning candidate must be “versatile, as familiar with Lake County poverty as with the housing crunch around UC Davis.”
To this point, Cecelia’s been to Lake County many times since declaring her candidacy. She’s been on local radio, at events and at meet and greets, taking the time to understand our issues. She shares our rural values and lifestyles and is primed to help us solve our problems as she has so capably done for the Winters community.
I found another informative editorial in the Winters Express (www.wintersexpress.com , 5/12/16). It is written from the perspective of a longtime journalist and editor who knows Cecilia and the other candidates well.
She likens the Assembly campaign to the Kentucky Derby, characterizing the three candidates in terms of bloodline, longevity and speed. You’ll have to read the editorial for yourself to fully appreciate the analogy.
Suffice it to say, Cecelia is characterized as the speed horse and declared the winner “by a nose.” I agree.
Olga Martin Steele lives in Clearlake Oaks, Calif.
California’s Community Property laws apply to how assets are divided at divorce and how assets are transferable at death.
Federal law, however, preempts (supercedes) California’s Community Property laws with respect both to so-called “ERISA (“Employee Retirement Income Support Act”) Qualified Plans” and to all “federal retirement” benefits, including Social Security. Let us discuss.
As the recent 2016 California Appellate decision in Marriage of Peterson (243 CA4th 943) shows, the division of a married couple’s retirement plan benefits in a divorce can be uneven.
In Peterson, the husband contributed to Social Security. The wife, however, was a member of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) Plan; thus, under federal Social Security law she was prohibited from contributing to Social Security.
Could the husband’s $228,000 Social Security contributions during marriage could be considered in allocating the wife’s $216,000 in LACERA benefits, a community property asset under California state law?
The court held that federal law prevented the court from considering the husband’s contributions from marital earnings to Social Security when allocating the wife’s LACERA benefits.
To do otherwise would be to offset the husband’s Social Security benefits against the wife’s LACERA benefits, which is prohibited under Federal Social Security Law.
The wife’s LACERA benefits, however, was community property under state law, and had to be divided equally.
Thus, the husband kept his Social Security benefits, entirely, under federal law and gained one-half of his wife’s LACERA benefits, under California state law.
If, however, a spouse, once divorced, dies unmarried and leaves his or her ex-spouse as beneficiary to an ERISA Qualified Plan, then under ERISA the ex-spouse still inherits, notwithstanding that California's Probate Code provides that divorces terminates the inheritance rights of a surviving ex-spouse.
The lifetime division of a spouse’s ERISA Qualified Plan during a divorce, e.g. a 401(k) retirement plan, however, can be more equitable.
Although federal law protects an employee (and his or her beneficiaries) who participates in an ERISA Qualified Plan against any alienation (assignment) of benefits, a significant exception exists for Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO’s”).
Provided the court’s order meets the QDRO requirements, the court can order the transfer of an interest in an ERISA Qualified Plan to a non participating spouse in dissolution proceedings.
After death, however, a deceased non participating spouse (whose spouse contributed marital earnings into an ERISA Qualified Plan) cannot devise what would have been his or her one-half community property interest. So decided the US Supreme Court in the landmark Boggs v. Boggs decision ((1997) 520 US 833).
ERISA also protects a surviving non participant spouse because the participant spouse may not name anyone else as the primary death beneficiary without the non participating spouse's consent.
Thus unless the non participant spouse survives and inherits the deceased participant’s ERISA qualified retirement plan, the non participant spouse will not be able to control who later inherits the retirement plan after the surviving participant spouse dies.
With respect to non qualified plans, however, including individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and all other nonprobate assets that pass to designated death beneficiaries (including regular life insurance, annuities, and pay on death accounts), California's Community Property Law normally still applies.
The contributing spouse whose name is on the account needs the consent of the non contributing spouse to name death beneficiaries with respect to the one-half of the contributions made from marital earnings that belongs to the non contributing spouse.
As discussed, federal law can have major implications for the non contributing spouse and his or her beneficiaries.
While federal law protects a living non contributing spouse, it does not protect a deceased non participating spouse's right to transfer his or her one-half community property interest.
Clearly, anyone confronting any of these legal issues needs to consult with a qualified attorney for guidance.
Dennis A. Fordham, Attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at
This is the most detailed view of Pluto’s terrain you’ll see for a very long time.
This mosaic strip – extending across the hemisphere that faced the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015 – now includes all of the highest-resolution images taken by the NASA probe.
With a resolution of about 260 feet per pixel, the mosaic affords New Horizons scientists and the public the best opportunity to examine the fine details of the various types of terrain on Pluto, and determine the processes that formed and shaped them.
“This new image product is just magnetic,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “It makes me want to go back on another mission to Pluto and get high-resolution images like these across the entire surface.”
The view extends from the “limb” of Pluto at the top of the strip, almost to the “terminator” (or day/night line) in the southeast of the encounter hemisphere, seen below.
The width of the strip ranges from more than 55 miles at its northern end to about 45 miles at its southern point.
The perspective changes greatly along the strip: at its northern end, the view looks out horizontally across the surface, while at its southern end, the view looks straight down onto the surface.
The movie shown above moves down the mosaic from top to bottom, offering new views of many of Pluto’s distinct landscapes along the way.
Starting with hummocky, cratered uplands at top, the view crosses over parallel ridges of “washboard” terrain, chaotic and angular mountain ranges, cellular plains, coarsely “pitted” areas of sublimating nitrogen ice, zones of thin nitrogen ice draped over the topography below, and dark mountainous highlands scarred by deep pits.
The pictures in the mosaic were obtained by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) approximately 9,850 miles (15,850 kilometers) from Pluto, about 23 minutes before New Horizons’ closest approach.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Lake County Zoning Administrator will consider approving Minor Use Permit (MUP 16-07) of NORM IHLE in accordance with Lake County Code to raise an existing building up approximately four feet to Rumsey and then build an access porch within the front yard setback.
The project is located at 3190 Lakeshore Blvd., Lakeport, CA, and further described as APN 028-061-11.
The Planner processing this application is Joshua Dorris, (707) 263-2221 or
The Zoning Administrator will approve this Minor Use Permit with no public hearing if no written request for a public hearing is submitted by 5:00 P.M., June 8, 2016 to the Community Development Department, Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, California.
Should a timely request for hearing be filed, a public hearing will be held on June 15, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. in Conference Room C, 3rd Floor of the Courthouse.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
Scott DeLeon, Interim Director
By: ______________________________________
Danae Bowen, Office Assistant III
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Lake County Zoning Administrator will consider approving Minor Use Permit (MUP 16-09) of Ernestine Goforth in accordance with Lake County Code to allow placement of an accessory structure exceeding the 20-foot height limit on an improved, approximately 22-acre site.
The project is located at 2663 New Valley Rd, Clearlake Oaks, CA, and further described as APN 006-011-40.
The Planner processing this application is Joshua Dorris, (707) 263-2221 or
The Zoning Administrator will approve this Minor Use Permit with no public hearing if no written request for a public hearing is submitted by 5:00 P.M., June 8, 2016 to the Community Development Department, Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, California.
Should a timely request for hearing be filed, a public hearing will be held on June 15, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. in Conference Room C, 3rd Floor of the Courthouse.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
Scott DeLeon, Interim Director
By: ______________________________________
Danae Bowen, Office Assistant III
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior has added seven VA national cemeteries to the National Register of Historic Places.
The recognition coincides with the national celebration of Historic Preservation Month each May and comes ahead of a weekend of Memorial Day observances at VA National Cemeteries nationwide.
“Over four million veterans, service members, reservists and family members – of every generation and from every war and conflict, from the Revolution to the Global War on Terror – have been laid to rest in VA national cemeteries. Inclusion in the National Register emphasizes the significance of these seven 1930s-era national cemeteries as hallowed grounds,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald. “This recognition is particularly timely. On Memorial Day, we pay homage to those who placed themselves on the Altar of Freedom for love of country; this is a day for remembrance, reflection and respect – for honoring those who gave all. That is the mission of those who serve in our National Cemetery Administration, a mission they consider a sacred trust with those who gave so much for their country.”
The national cemeteries added to the National Register of Historic Places are Baltimore, Md.; Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Rosecrans, Calif.; Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Snelling, Minn.; Golden Gate, Calif.; and Long Island, NY.
The listing recognizes the cemeteries established between the World Wars and as the first expansion of the national cemetery system since the Civil War. They also represent the first modern landscape designs created to honor the sacrifice of thousands of veterans.
The individual cemetery designs are tailored to each location, but together reflect a unity of purpose in their appearance and sentiment. The history of national cemeteries is one of evolving veterans’ benefits, memorialization, politics and planning.
VA has 102 national cemeteries listed in the National Register. This distinction recognizes these national cemeteries as national shrines honoring the Veterans buried there, their historic association with U.S. military history and as an enduring symbol of their sacrifice. In addition,
VA operates 134 national cemeteries and 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites in 40 states and Puerto Rico.
More than 4 million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA’s national cemeteries. VA also provides funding to establish, expand, improve, and maintain 100 veterans cemeteries in 47 states and territories including tribal trust lands, Guam and Saipan.
For veterans not buried in a VA national cemetery, VA provides headstones, markers or medallions to commemorate their service. In 2015, VA honored more than 353,000 veterans and their loved ones with memorial benefits in national, state, tribal and private cemeteries.
Information on VA burial benefits is available from local VA national cemetery offices, at www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000. For more information about the history of VA national cemeteries, visit www.cem.va.gov/history .
For a listing of Memorial Day events taking place at VA national cemeteries nationwide, visit http://www.cem.va.gov/features.asp .